


The Cake's Not a Lie If You Bake Your Own

by keerawa



Category: Fifth Element (1997)
Genre: Dark, F/M, Happy Ending, Military, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Soldiers, Yuletide 2013
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 21:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keerawa/pseuds/keerawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every soldier needs someone to come home to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cake's Not a Lie If You Bake Your Own

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DigitalMeowMix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DigitalMeowMix/gifts).



Dallas is no hero. The heroes, the ones who wanted to save the world, they were the first ones in the unit to die. 

The next to go were the ones who couldn't adapt quick enough. Sure, the unit saw their share of space battles, like the recruiters talked about, but that wasn't the whole job. There were recons and 'you will be disavowed' wetwork ops. Dallas's unit was the one sent in to take the Martian rebels out in a brutal house-to-house battle with the dome leaking atmosphere by the second. 

Then there was that weird mission where they spent three weeks body-guarding some alien ambassador that looked like a squid. Dallas blew it apart when he caught it eating Lieutenant Mohammed. Dallas never did figure out if the thing was a traitor, if the Lieutenant had somehow pissed it off, or if that's how they conducted diplomatic relations back on Planet Squid. But the brass gave him another piece of chest candy for it, so they must've approved.

The ones who were a little too slow died next; then the ones that were a little too fast. Things went completely FUBAR on that bug planet. Only six of them made it off the surface. Finger was the only one still combat-effective. There was talk of maybe disbanding the unit. 

Dallas was … he was done. He'd been hurt too bad, lost too many friends, done enough bad shit to populate a life-time worth of nightmares. There was a power outage when he was in the medtank, and Dallas broke three bones in his hand when he lost it in the sudden darkness and tried to smash his way out. It was time to walk away.

A General Tannis showed up in Dallas's room at the VA, promising him the best medical care available and a promotion to major for his next tour. When Dallas told the general he wasn't planning on re-upping, the man shook his hand. 

"I understand," the general said, standing straight and tall, fruit salad on display, "but a spot in the unit is waiting for you, in case you change your mind."

"Yeah," Dallas told him. "I don't think so."

Dallas met the girl of his dreams a few days later, volunteering right there at the hospital. Melanie was perfect, exactly what he'd always wanted. They had a whirlwind romance and were married by the time he finished his rehab. Melanie was a military brat. She expected him to serve his planet and look after his buddies in the unit. And so he did.

The unit was back together. Except for Finger, every one of the survivors had re-upped. There must've been something in the water in Tampa, because Riley and Thompson had both fallen in love while on medical leave, too. In the past, guys would have fucked around, stealing pictures of each other's girls and mail from back home, but they all understood that was off-limits, now. The five of them had walked through fire together, and sometimes the thought of that perfect woman waiting for him back home was all that kept Dallas going.

Mendez got taken out by a bio-weapon so infectious that they weren't allowed to retrieve his remains. Thompson and Felsburg were vaporized by a tactical nuke in some cave in the Hindu Kush. Riley walked out of an airlock on Station Hermes, after the two of them had cleared the place. Dallas didn't know why, but he staged an enemy action to cover it up and get his wife the death benefits she deserved.

Dallas was declared 'high-risk' after a psych-eval and given an honorable discharge.

Along with his discharge papers, he received another couple of letters that had apparently been chasing him around known space for months. One from his wife, and one from his lawyer. Dallas tried tracking Melanie down, to apologize, to ask her to take him back, to get some fucking closure. But he couldn't find her. 

Dallas went to ask his mom if she knew where Melanie might've gone. Mom chewed him out for not inviting her to the wedding; seemed she'd never even met Melanie. Which was weird. Yeah, Mom was a pain in the ass, but Dallas couldn't figure out why he hadn't at least introduced the two of them before his last tour. Military families looked out for each other. Always had, always would.

He never did find Melanie. Dallas drifted through his own life like a ghost. 

When Dallas met Leeloo, his first thought was that she was the perfect woman. He felt disloyal to his ex, thinking that, but these days he had to look at his wedding photo to even remember what Melanie looked like. This girl was beautiful, alive by some fucking miracle when she should be dead, possibly crazy, and she needed his help.

Dallas knew that she'd probably get him killed. He just didn't give a shit. He glanced back at the girl, finally understanding Riley's need for a heavenly view on the way out, and dove his cab down through traffic like a fighter weaving through an asteroid field.

Dallas tried to kiss her awake like Prince fucking Charming and she pulled his own gun on him. Leeloo scrambled up, trembling, battle-ready, no sign that she recognized him. Dallas understood. He did. Those first few weeks in the hospital, he had to concentrate to see the medical staff as people; out of the corner of his eye they always looked like targets or threats. 

She was a warrior, and she was alone.

In the end Leeloo was ready to sacrifice herself to save the planet. Screw that. Dallas had lost everyone and everything saving this fucking planet, over and over again. They'd bled him dry, and he wouldn't let them do it to her. Dallas promised her a life. A life with love, and vacations, and him. It wasn't much, maybe, but it was everything he had. 

And so they saved the planet.

Leeloo's war is over. Dallas pulled General Munro aside, after the awards ceremony, and very quietly and sincerely promised to slit the throat of anyone who tried to recruit her. The powers that be left them alone after that.

Dallas's mom insisted they hold the wedding on the Moon. She thinks Leeloo's too good for him. Dallas agrees. Their honeymoon wasn't much of a vacation – more like his favorite kind of mission, crawling around in the rubble and sludge of New York's Undercity, saving lives. Leeloo loved it.

Dallas takes one last look around the animal shelter before locking up for the night. The latest couple of feral cats they'd rescued down below were finally settling in, letting Dallas feed them without trying to scratch him to pieces. The cab he called gets caught in traffic, and by the time Dallas arrives Leeloo's performance has already begun.

She is power and beauty in the spotlight, leaping, twirling, and moving to the music. Dallas is probably the only one in the audience who can see the deadly force behind her movements, the dozen enemies in the kata. She catches sight of him in the audience and smiles. Her movements become slower, more sensual, hands beckoning rather than defensive. The music rises to a finale. Leeloo takes two steps and launches herself into the air, body a single graceful curve.

Dallas watches her fly free.


End file.
